Children of Blood and Bone, a 2018 YA romantic fantasy novel by Tomi Adeyemi, a Nigerian-American novelist, follows a young heroine who undertakes a mission to return magic to the Kingdom of Orisha, opposing the ruling class in the process.
Even if you don’t read fantasy, you have probably heard that title because Children of Blood and Bone was a big deal when it first emerged on the market, making waves after landing one of the biggest publishing deals ever.
The author took inspiration from famous works like Harry Potter, African mythology, Yoruba culture, as well as the heartbreaking stories of police officers shooting and killing black people in the USA. Landing a live-action Disney adaptation was a dream come true for Tomi.
So, you can imagine everyone’s confusion when she distanced herself from the adaptation a few weeks ago, going so far as to publish text messages in which she told Amandla Stenberg: “Do not ever use my name in an interview or video again. Do not text me. Do not call me.”
She also spoke in a TikTok video, of a day when she was ‘hyperventilating and sobbing’ after leaving the set of “my own film production”.
Then she went home and suffered ‘”severe somatic pain and so many panic attacks”, which is when she decided that she would not watch the film upon its release.
Stenberg (Rue in The Hunger Games and Osha in The Acolyte) is relevant to this conversation because she is a pretty lightskinned girl, and that matters because her character in Children of Blood and Bone is Princess Amari, whose descriptions in the book paint the picture of a dark-skinned character, hence the suggestion that colorism is part of the reason why Tomi is so angry about the adaptation.
She feels like the film does not reflect her desire to create positions for dark-skinned girls in entertainment. If you think that Ugandans are unique in believing that light-skinned individuals (and women in particular) are favoured over their dark-skinned counterparts, this conversation has been running in the United States for decades.
Anyway, I would be lying if I said that Children of Blood and Bone matters to me. Yes, it features a predominantly Black/ African cast, and the story uses an African setting. But YA fantasy is not my cup of tea.
Also, I watched the trailer, and it was fairly bland. However, the Tomi/Stenberg feud raises an interesting question. None of us knows what happened; not for certain. Tomi has yet to provide concrete details.
It would not surprise me if she signed a contract with the studio that legally prevents her from decampaigning the film with negative comments before it debuts. More than likely, she is angry that Disney executives made drastic changes to her script. I should point out that Tomi’s novel has a colorism plot.
Not only is Stenberg’s character (in the book) dark-skinned, but she receives incessant criticism from her mother because her complexion differs drastically from that of her lighter-skinned contemporaries in the royal court.
Disney probably did away with that aspect of the story in the adaptation, the same way some adaptations remove themes they deem too controversial for modern audiences. They don’t want to trigger the kinds of conversations and arguments among viewers that eventually harm the film’s financial performance.
That brings us to a vital question. How should readers respond? If you are a Game of Thrones fanatic and George R.R. Martin reveals that the live-action adaptation has gone against his wishes, would you stand with him?
Tomi says she won’t watch Children of Blood and Bone. Will you respect the spirit of that announcement by avoiding the adaptation as well? How loyal are you to the author of your favourite books? After all, they wrote the thing you adore. Do you love the author enough to squash whatever curiosity you feel toward the adaptation? Or are the author’s desires entirely irrelevant?
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